Tef genetic resources in Ethiopia
2001
Abebe Demisie (Institute of Biodiversity Conservation and Research, Addis Abeba (Ethiopia))
Ethiopia is one of the major Vavilovian centers of orign and/or diversity for several crop species. Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] is one of these crops. Like many other cereals, however, the tef germplasm resource base is also threatened by both man-made and natural factors such as displacement of heterogeneous populations with uniform varieties, changes in agricultural management and farming systems, and recurrent drought. Since its establishment in 1976, IBCR has carried out a series of plant exploration expeditions to collect, conserve, characterize and evaluate these dwindling resources. To date a total of 4300 tef accessions have been collected from various agro-ecological zones in the country. The materials collected are safely conserved ex situ in appropriate storage conditions both for short and long-term conservation and utilization purposes. A significant portion of the tef collections has been evaluated for agro-morphological traits and to some extent to disease reactions at appropriate agro-ecological sites. Large numbers of tef accessions have been utilized in the National tef Improvement Program.
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